Budding Heavyweights Gosling And Cooper Star In This Misfire!
By ALAN SAMUEL
Make no mistakes when you’re young or new on the job. Lessons like this are invaluable but hard to come by. A grown man must face off against his troubled past in The Place Beyond The Pines, a startling and unsettling new dramatic thriller from Alliance Films now showing at the International Village Cinemas and select Cineplex Odeon cites around B.C. Not to be missed if serious drama is your weakness, this 140 minute tale is startling and fulfilling in a dark, evil way.
Sombre is definitely the tone set by fresh director/writer Derek Cianfrance. Certainly not from France this movie is set in the hard to pronounce city of Schenectady New York. Tough and gritty is the lifestyle on tap as depicted by lead character Luke. Troubled and aloof, Canadian hearthrob Ryan Gosling (The Notebook) clearly holds your attention as the messed up young man who makes a living riding his motorcycle. Broken homes are common for this drifter and we see he has just ended a relationship with the rather fetching Romina, played in a glamoured down way by sultry Eva Mendes. Alas, their relationship is not made in heaven and poor Luke still Pines over his loss. To try to get back in her “good” books he decides to improve his cash flow situation in hopes of winning her back. Nothing comes easy for this guy but his knack of handling a bike comes in handy as he embarks on a criminal track.
Nothing good comes of crime and that lifestyle costs Luke dearly. When a robbery goes terribly wrong a local police officer named Avery Cross causes his ultimate downfall. Hot off his inspiring work in Silver Lining Playbook Bradley Cooper again forsakes his Hangover comical persona to portray an equallly troubled officer whose life also unravels in a quick descent. Cooper and Gosling are terrific as two men with jaded pasts whose future somehow intersect in an eerie, though masterful way.
Full of suprises and sudden jolts, The Place Beyond The Pines is a first class film noire that boasts top performances and again hones in on corruptible practices. Family matters are pivotal to this tale that also focuses in on the father/son relationship and how over time things can erode and return. Ebb and flow carresses your senses as you bear witness to troubled youth, broken homes and the danger that holding back can present.
